I’m fond both of movies set in Africa and movies with political subtexts, so I hope frustrations over rising gas prices somehow sends more people to the movie theater to see Viva Riva! than might otherwise check out a movie set in Kinshasa and in French and Lingala:

I get so visually fatigued by skyscrapers, by the grayness of American landscapes, that this is a delight to look at. (As a side note, I cannot wait for Viktor Bout‘s trial to begin in September so I have an excuse to talk about how underrated Lord of War is again.) Viva Riva! will probably end up being a fairly conventional Have Geopolitically-Induced Economic Opportunity, Will Have Girl Trouble movie, but that’s okay. There’s something weirdly refreshing about an action movie where said action is inspired by actual problems actual people face like gas shortages, instead of baroque foreign syndicates, or giant meteors, or aliens who want our water.

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